Ireland’s Dead Label was formed back in 2008, and since then has been touted as one of the countries rising Metal acts. I had never heard of the group, but apparently they issued a debut album that I had missed out on back in 2013 titled Sense of Slaughter through Rising Records (though noted in the press release as through Nuerra Records). I’m familiar with Rising Records and some of the groups on it, so when their new single “It Burns Within” hit the inbox earlier, I figured I’d give it a shot and see what their “as yet untitled” 2014 album has in store.

While the press release claims Dead Label as modern Thrash Metal, it’s pretty obvious they fall into the Metalcore category, though Metal-Archives also claims it’s mixed with Death Metal. Sadly, I didn’t hear any of that on this single. Instead what I heard was slower, fluid mixture of slower and upbeat typical Metalcore in the vein of Unearth. There are some passages that bring in a bit of Groove Metal authority Pantera style, such as near the five minute mark. These are a nice touch and are played on well enough with the guitar solo a minute later, but the slower portion with clean singing and distant raspy vocals at two minutes and fifty seconds sounds pretty forced.

For being nearly eight minutes in length, “It Burns Within” isn’t bad overall from a structuring point of view. The band sounds good from start to finish, there isn’t much you could consider filler, and the pacing is just right to maintain your attention. The song itself isn’t anything too memorable, but according to the aforementioned press release drummer Claire Percival stated “We’re a live band. We live to play live. We connect with our audience and we have an energetic show.” Perhaps the song will have a greater impact live than it does from the studio. “It Burns Within” isn’t something that really put me on notice, but I wouldn’t mind hearing it in context with their upcoming album.